SF Politics Ex-DBI Inspector Bernie Curran Pleads Guilty To Taking Bribes To Grant Permits Another one goes down in the ongoing Mohammed Nuru-spawned federal corruption investigations, as the Justice Department announced former Department of Building Inspection inspector Bernard Curran pleaded guilty to taking kickbacks "as rewards for approving building permits."
SF News New Plan For That SoMa High-Rise On A Nordstrom Parking Lot Making Its Way Through City Hall The proposed 27-story residential tower that gained notoriety when the SF Board of Supervisors rejected it last year is back with a revised plan that went before the Planning Commission Thursday, and it generated shockingly little discussion or debate.
Arts & Entertainment For This Year's February Firefall Phenom In Yosemite, You'll Need Reservations The ever-growing popularity of the brief winter window for Yosemite's "firefall" phenomenon means that in 2023, reservations will be required.
Business & Tech Elon Musk’s Echo Chamber Busy Trying to Manufacture More ‘Twitter Files’ Scandals Musk has another underemployed Substacker trying to dig up dirt on the previous Twitter regime, as right-wing hack Bari Weiss serves up another batch of “Twitter Files” revelations that don’t deem to reveal much.
SF News 66-Year-Old San Jose Man Allegedly Shoots Unarmed Black Man Renting Airbnb In His Neighborhood A white San Jose resident has been charged in the unprovoked shooting of an unarmed Black man in October who was leaving an Airbnb he was renting to head to a grocery store.
SF News Swedish Tourists Allegedly Kidnapped and Assaulted By Disturbed Man In Sonoma County Meth is a helluva drug. But seriously, two Swedish tourists just had a frightening run-in with a suspect whom police are calling "delusional" in a hotel parking lot in Petaluma, and they ended up assaulted and bloody.
SF News Friday Morning Constitutional: School Board Throws $6M More at Payroll Problem The SF school board just authorized another $6M to pay contractors who are trying to fix the broken payroll system, a mask mandate may return in LA, and forecasters say this La Nina will fade by April.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Airbnb Is Trying to Thwart New Year's Eve Party Rentals Airbnb is once again trying to keep people from renting homes for New Year's parties in SF and elsewhere, a prominent activist in San Jose was killed in a pedestrian crash, and downtown architecture firm Gensler has just signed a big new lease.
SF News SF Cannabis Dispensaries Can Now Have Non-Transparent Roll-Up Security Gates, Which They Couldn’t Before Today I learned that marijuana dispensaries are not allowed to have roll-up security gates that are not transparent. But also today, the SF Planning Commission removed that restriction for pot shops.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink New Northern Italian Spot Ciccino, From Former Rich Table/Italian Homemade Co. Chef, Now Open for Dinner On Nob Hill A new Northern Italian restaurant that was initially only open for lunch this fall has debuted its full dinner menu, and early reviews are coming in.
Business & Tech Elon Musk No Longer World’s Richest Man, Which Is Maybe Why a Blue Check Might Cost $11 On iOS Twitter’s vaunted, re-revised $8 blue-check system is supposedly coming out within the next 24 hours, and because of Apple’s App store fees, Musk will reportedly charge iOS users $11 for a blue check instead of the normal $8 price.
SF News Ex-Warden of Dublin Women's Prison Convicted of Sexually Abusing Inmates The jury returned swiftly with a verdict in the trial of former FCI Dublin warden Ray Garcia, and he's been found guilty on all eight counts he was charged with, seven of which stemmed from sexually abusive conduct toward three female inmates.
SF News Rejoice! BART Is Dumping the $6.40 ‘Excursion Fare’ For Getting On and Off at The Same Station The good news is that BART will stop charging you $6.40 for leaving the station that you had just entered. The bad news is that this change likely won’t happen until “sometime in the summer of 2024.”
SF News Lowell Teachers Pulled Mass Sickout Wednesday Over Still-Ongoing Payroll Fiasco As many as 90% of Lowell High School teachers, and perhaps a third of the student body, staged a sickout Wednesday over the still-faulty payroll system that is ironically called “EMPower.”
SF News Rainy Day Will Give Way to Cold and Dry Friday, With Atmospheric River Hitting Saturday A cold front is bringing some moderate rain to San Francisco and all of the Bay Area today, but it will pass, there will be a chilly lull, and then comes the bigger storm.
SF News Thursday Morning What's Up: Brittney Griner Is Free WNBA star Brittney Griner is on a plane back home after a prisoner swap with Russia, Santa Clara County has a new sheriff starting his job early, and the Bold Italic has been handed over to political group GrowSF.
SF News Day Around the Bay: Oakland Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan Faces $19K Ethics Fine Oakland Vice Mayor Rebecca Kaplan is facing a fine for not disclosing her ownership of some property, an Oakland high school student was stabbed by another student at school, and a motorcyclist died in a Mission District collision.
Arts & Entertainment NYT Mini Crossword Erroneously Refers to BART as SF's 'Metro,' and People Flip Out It's de rigeur in these parts to get very haughty about mistakes that East Coasters make when they write about our fair city. And the NYT Crossword editors have some explaining to do.
SF News SFMTA Makes 16 Slow Streets Permanent, Including the Humongously Controversial Slow Lake Street A full 16 so-called Slow Streets became permanent after a Tuesday night SFMTA board vote, though a dozen others will lose their Slow Street status, and six hours of public comment furor swayed the board to keep the Richmond’s Lake Street a Slow Street.
Business & Tech Sunny Balwani Sentenced to 13 Years In Theranos Fraud — 2 More Years Than Holmes A federal judge has deemed the actions of former Theranos President and COO Ramesh "Sunny" Balwani to be a little bit more egregious than his partner in fraud Elizabeth Holmes — two years' worse, to be exact.
Arts & Entertainment Solano County Home Featured on 'Great Christmas Light Fight' The Bay Area can already claim a couple of wins from previous seasons of ABC's suburban Christmas light fever-dream of a competition show The Great Christmas Light Fight, and now we have another contender up in Suisun City.
SF Restaurants, Food & Drink Disgraced Belcampo Meat Co. Reportedly Under USDA Investigation for Horribly Unsanitary Conditions Did you ever have that “sustainable” high-end meat from Belcampo Meat Company? Well, some bits of it were found on the bathroom floor covered with ants at their meat-processing plant, according to new documents that have come to light from a USDA investigation.
SF News Sonoma County Mountain Lion Straight Up Walks Into Woman’s Home, Drags Out Her Dog The dog survived, but the mountain lion was tracked down and euthanized, after an incident last weekend where the mountain lion casually walked into a Sonoma County home and picked a fight with the dog.
SF News Great Highway Will Now Remain Car-Free (On Weekends) Through 2025 The current status quo of the Great Highway being car-free on weekends and holidays is now set in stone, or until the end of 2025 at least, as the SF Board of Supervisors voted on a three-year extension of the program.
Business & Tech Elon Musk Gets Fully In Bed With Conservative Media, Lashes Back About Twitter 'Bedroom' Investigation With Tweet About Fentanyl-Exposed Baby It's another day of maturity and gravitas at Musk Twitter, as Elon Musk defends "providing beds for Twitter employees" by turning this back on San Francisco and its other problems, via tweet. Also, ICYMI, this "Twitter Files" thing...
